Matt Asay, 'Life is good in open-source land'

He said that during the recession, open source companies did quite well, while many closed source firms have struggled.

"This shouldn't be surprising. Pinched corporate pocketbooks sent more IT directors scouring the web for high-quality, low-cost open-source software. And they found it, leading to robust earnings at public and private open-source companies alike.

Red Hat has nailed quarter after quarter of impressive sales and profitability. Alfresco has notched 20-straight quarters of growth, becoming profitable in 2009. These are but two examples of the profitable growth the downturn engendered in the open-source set.

Cloudera, SugarCRM, Jaspersoft, and Funambol, each of which grew sales by at least 50 per cent each year through the downturn, often while keeping their bottom lines in the black.

Life is good in open-source land. Even when it's bad everywhere else."